Charlie has a nose for a good invention

Charlie Francis, MPLO

Published:13:00Friday 14 November 2014

Forget adding salt and pepper to your meal, the Olfactic Dog Nose will improve the flavour of your food more than any condiment you own.

Created by Wing-based award-winning inventor Charlie Francis, the Olfactic Dog Nose is soaked in warm water and worn for 10 minutes prior to eating, moistening your nasal cavity and vastly improving your sense of smell and flavour.

Charlie, 30, who runs his company Lick Me I’m Delicious from the Acorn Business Centre, off Cublington Road, said: “It basically gives you a very gentle nasal douche. A wet nose is a healthy nose on a dog, similarly a wet nasal passage is a tasty nasal passage for a human.”

This latest invention is part of the wider Human Cookbook movement Charlie is championing, looking at the effect your mental and physical state has on flavour. If you’re tired, if you haven’t exercised recently, if you’ve been gorging on sugar or eating a diet high in salts, if you’re dehydrated, if you’re stressed, if you had a massive lunch, if you eat really quickly – all these things will have a huge effect on how much you enjoy your meal

Charlie added: “When you go to an expensive restaurant, the chef has spent hours creating the perfect combination of flavours in your dish and then you just walk in off the street, plonk yourself down and start eating without a thought for how you could effect the meal. “You have far more control over how good that meal will taste than any chef does.”

Charlie’s company is also home of the Nitro Ice Cream Buggy, Edible Mist Machines, Ice Cream Pottery Gramophone Wheel, Instant Lollipop Maker, Soup Washing Machine and birthplace of the World’s first glow in the dark ice cream which glows as you lick it.

Last month we reported on Charlie’s new Levitron device – a machine which uses ultrasonic sound waves to create a levitating cocktail. He is now looking at developing contactless cutlery, levitating popcorn and later down the line a floating roast dinner.